The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board has today appointed two new Co-Chairs at its nineteenth meeting in Songdo, Republic of Korea. Paul Oquist has been elected as the developing country Co-Chair, whilst Lennart Båge is the developed country Co-Chair. They replace the outgoing Co-Chairs, Ayman M. Shasly (Developing Countries) and Ewen McDonald (Developed Countries).

In light of the fully charged agenda, the Board has decided to convert today's planned informal meeting into a formal Board session. The B.19 Board meeting will therefore take place from Monday 26 February until Thursday 1 March, and will be presided by the incoming Co-Chairs.

Dr. Paul Oquist has represented the Republic of Nicaragua in international climate negotiations for many years. Dr. Oquist is currently Minister-Private Secretary for National Policies of President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and is also Executive Secretary of The Commission of the Nicaraguan Grand Interoceanic Canal. He is a Member by the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Standing Committee on Finance, and represented developing countries on the Executive Committee of the UNFCCC Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Dr. Oquist was also a two-term member of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and he has been Head of Delegation to the Climate Change Conference of Parties for Nicaragua since COP 15 in Copenhagen. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California in Berkeley, California.

CBFP News

In response to charges made by the international NGO, Greenpeace, against the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD), Minister Ambatobe’s office has released a statement to clarify some aspects of the case. In a press release issued Tuesday evening, 20 January 2018, regarding Greenpeace’s allegations, the MEDD insisted and signed a statement to the effect that, "the reallocation of said concessions does not violate the moratorium on logging concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".

In a bid to help Gabon’s participatory forestry sector reach its full potential, the Ministry of Forestry and the Environment has conducted a study to review participatory forestry with the technical assistance of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO’s framework for assessing the extent and effectiveness of Participatory Forestry was used to conduct the study. A validation workshop on the study was held from 21 to 22 February 2018.

Kinshasa, 20 February 2018. The Congolese Minister of Environment, Amy Ambatobe, has reinstated 6,500 km² of logging concessions that were cancelled in August 2016 by one of his predecessors, Robert Bopolo, on the orders of then Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo. The three concessions which were reinstated on 1 February 2018 were awarded to the Chinese-owned logging companies FODECO and SOMIFOR.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “transforming women’s lives”, and we also need to consider the transformative role that women play in steering our planet towards a sustainable future.

On Thursday morning, participants met to discuss innovative instruments to upscale progress: financing, technologies and research. Parallel sessions addressed: public and private international finance; innovative technologies for land-use monitoring; financial instruments to mobilize domestic funding; and the role of science and research.

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Switzerland was launched in Bern, Switzerland, on 15 February 2018, as part of the global SDSN, a UN initiative. SDSN Switzerland aims to provide an environment to discuss challenges faced by Switzerland in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.

The Adaptation Fund achieved great results in 2017, making excellent progress to help vulnerable countries adapt and build resilience to increasingly urgent climate change impacts occurring across the globe.